


What I really mean (and what you really see)

by KiaraHunt



Category: BuzzFeed Violet (Short Films), Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Flower Shop, Alternate Universe - Flower Shop & Tattoo Parlor, Alternate Universe - Tattoo Parlor, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Humor, I Don't Even Know, Mutual Pining, Pining, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-21
Updated: 2019-08-21
Packaged: 2020-10-01 16:28:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20335822
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KiaraHunt/pseuds/KiaraHunt
Summary: "Wow, " Sara whispered "I never knew that. You really seem to know your stuff ""Yeah. Well, " Shane wanted to say something cool, " You know... Floriography is...fun?"Well done MadejORThe Shane/Sara flowershop AU (with Ryan as a supportive friend) that only my friend asked for





	What I really mean (and what you really see)

**Author's Note:**

> My first fanfic so idk

Beep beep beep +

The alarm on Shane's phone at his nightstand screeched loudly right into his ear. Shane made no attempt to stop it or even hit the snooze button. It was already unfair that he had to wake up at 5:30 in the morning for a temp job he didn't care for, waking up also meant going to his uncle's flower shop, work as a florist for 8 hours and trying not to stare at Sara and her stupid adorable curls working next door.

Beep beep beep

Uh Mondays. Mondays mean early delivery of flowers which meant going early at his job which meant he will have to wait for 2 hours for Sara to show up with her regular cup of dessert which she apparently calls 'beverage'. Sara meant pining. Gross, adorable, him writing their names together in a heart while trying to build up the courage to talk to her pining.

Beep beep beep

While Shane was wallowing in self-pity, a pillow hit Shane directly at his face followed by Ryan yelling, " SHUT DOWN YOUR DAMN ALARM".

With a groan Shane finally moved and stopped his alarm so that people won't know Shane as the guy who was murdered by his so called 'best friend' cause he was hopelessly in love.

"You're hopelessly in love with that tattoo girl" Ryan said while pouring both his and Shane's coffee.

"What- No- what?" Shane immediately retaliated "Where did this even come from? I didn't even say anything"  
"Oh cause making a playlist of unrequited love songs wasn't enough" Ryan answered while pushing a plate of waffles towards Shane. "Look," Ryan started, "I made you a plate of waffles and coffee at this ungodly hour, I am being nice to you today."

"You woke me up by throwing a pillow" Shane interrupted. Although Ryan was right. Not once he had made fun of his 'sasquatch height' and 'big head'

"Mostly nice," Ryan continued "Today is your day man. You're going to go up to her and talk to her. Atleast tell her your name and maybe...get her number"

"We've talked before..."

"She came over to ask if you had some change, Shane, and you just gave it to her without saying anything" Ryan cut him off. "C'mon dude, you've been into this girl for months now. You might be getting that internship at that firm soon, you don't want to lose this opportunity, do you? So just talk to her and we can watch an old horror film when you get back. Just be calm"

"Rich coming from a guy who screamed at the wind" Shane deflected

"I am trying really hard to be nice here man" Ryan replied along with a glare. "If you don't tell her by the time I come back home, I will make you watch a paranormal investigation show"

"Okay okay. Yeah I will do it"

Nope he can't do this. He definitely can't do this. Shane's anxiety screamed at him as soon as he saw Sara and her newly violet dyed hair from his shop entering the tattoo parlor next to him. Funny. His anxiety didn't visit this much before her. He was often composed. Didn't even slightly shiver when Ryan forced him to check out a random old abandoned 'haunted' house.

But with Sara? He's looking at different flowers around him, wondering, which ones she would like. He's never given someone flowers. There's no point. They're going to die in 2 days. His uncle told him to not say that to the customers because that is not a 'sound marketing strategy' .

What does he know, he's not even here. Probably somewhere sleeping in on his day off while Shane has to inhale his coffee to stay awake.

"Excuse me?"

Shane snapped back to reality from his thoughts to pay attention to the customer in front of him. He didn't expect a lot of customers this early.

"Yeah, sorry, how can I help-" Shane immediately stopped when he realized that it was Sara. The Sara, right in front of him.

"Hi?" Sara carefully said when Shane didn't say anything for a few moments

Shane, realizing that he was messing it up, composed himself. "Hey, Sara. How can I help you?"

Shane gave himself a mental pat on his back for forming a coherent sentence. He also didn't miss the slightest of blush on Sara's cheeks.

She fixed her glasses and proceeded, "I kinda need your help with something"  
Instead of saying that he would be willing to dance on the streets naked for her, Shane just said "Yeah sure. What do you need?" Whew 2 for 2. His mid-western upbringing really did help him with controlling his emotions.

"A client of mine wanted to get a tattoo of a specific flower and I was wondering if you could help me with it...?" Sara asked

She almost looked...shy?

"It wasn't adorable" Shane's brain tried to help.

It didn't help.

Shane quickly focused back on the topic at hand. He was not going to ruin this.

"Yeah okay, what flower do they want?" Shane asked  
"Oh, um, something called 'the bird of paradise' flower? I mean I could have googled it but I thought it would be better to look at it. Personally. Instead of just sitting behind a desk and sketching from memory or some picture..." She paused her rambling "...don't you think?"

Shane had to do everything in his power not to confess his feelings right there and then and just said, "Yeah I think so too"

Shane blinked a few times as if suddenly remembering that he was in a public place. When Shane looked back at Sara, she seemed to be doing the same.

"I think I can help with this" Shane said suddenly going to the back room and bringing out a single solitary flower.

He walked back to Sara and presented it to her while pretending he wasn't nervous as hell.

"Thanks" Sara said and took the flower into her hands to examine it.

"Interesting shades", she whispered to herself.

"Yeah!" Shane said it too loud for his own liking, "I mean they are pretty interesting flowers"

Sara diverted her eyes from the flower to Shane to give him a quizzical look.

"I mean, they are often mistaken for a bird. It actually is supposed to represent joyfulness, freedom, liberation and ,as the name suggests, paradise" Shane tried to explain. There was a buzz in his brain where it connected 'paradise' to 'Sara's presence' but he buried it really deep where nobody could ever know. When Shane looked back at Sara, she was looking at him like he told her the secret of the Universe.

"Wow, " Sara whispered "I never knew that. You really seem to know your stuff "

"Yeah. Well, " Shane wanted to say something cool, " You know... Floriography is...fun?"

Well done Madej

"Yeah, a lot of my clients have been coming to the parlor for tattoos of various symbolic flowers. I just thought...maybe I could finally get a look up close." Sara spoke "It's really interesting these shades would be difficult to capture"

"You probably could, I mean you're the best at the game with your amazing art" Shane said, internally grateful that she moved past his awkward comment.

Sara gave a stunned look and slowly asked, "You've...you've seen my work? "

Shane tried to come up with an excuse quickly cause he sure as hell was not going to tell her that he has spent an unhealthy amount of time scrolling through her instagram page and looking at her art.

"I mean- I have heard that....from people you know?" Shane responded swiftly "You are the best at your game"

Sara smiled and replied "Well thank you. I saw today that you are also the best at your game." She looked at him for a few seconds before handing back the flower.

"You can keep it" Shane said "It's on the house"

Sara looked surprised but elated "Thanks again then I guess, for everything." She made a move to leave "See you around, Shane"

Shane almost didn't notice before he said "Wait? You know my name?"

"I have heard it from people, you know?" and with that suddenly she was gone.

It took Shane the remaining part of the day to process what had exactly happened and at the end of the day, he was proud of himself. He didn't get her number or asked her out for which he will get crap from Ryan but he was at least able to hold a complete conversation without staying completely silent or telling her the names of their future children. He deserved a beer for his composure.

He was about to clean up and close for the day when he saw some remaining flowers on the shelves.  
"Shane?"  
Shane turned around from his carefully crafted masterpiece(seriously it was as good as those hotdog stories he wrote ) to see who called his name and to find Sara at his shop for the second time in the day.

"Hey Sara, good to see you again", maybe it was the meeting prior in the day but he somehow felt all his usual calmness coming back to him.  
"Yeah I just came back to thank you. Personally." Sara stumbled over her last few words, "Yeah the client really liked the work"

With his customary self-control back with him, he could finally look at Sara properly. The low light of the shop in the evening and traffic lights from outside the street illuminated her in a different way than Shane has ever seen up close. He could very clearly see the tattoos on her right arm, most of them were of some mythical creatures. There was a horse with two heads, a girl whose half side was human and other was a entity of some kind and a wand of some kind. She had surprisingly lesser ink than what you would expect a tattoo artist to have. Shane was always curious about the work on her arm and what it meant to her. The arm which was currently holding the flower Shane gave her

"I am glad I could help" Shane said with the slightest of smiles on his face

"Yeah I am glad too," Sara smiled back, "What are you doing here by the way? You are usually gone by this time"

"Gone by this time? Has she been noticing me?" Shane thought to himself

Sara must have noticed Shane's expression as she immediately back-pedaled, "I mean, doesn't the shop close by now?"

"Yeah but I was just looking into some flower symbolisms and meanings before I left" Shane said.

"Is that why you got into this? Floriography?" Sara asked leaning over the counter

"Not really?" Shane said suddenly self conscious, "This is just a temp job my uncle gave me but it's nice to know what they mean." Shane somehow felt a comfort wash over him, like he could tell her anything, "What got you into ink work?"

"I just like art and stabbing people with a needle is frowned upon in most other careers" Sara calmly said while holding back a smile.

Shane definitely was more attracted to her now

"Well, if you do accidently stab someone, the flowers are can hide the smell" Shane chuckled

Sara looked taken aback, like she wasn't really expecting him to play along but her expression immediately morphed into one of a glee, "Duly noted"

They were just looking at each other and Shane could almost feel an expression of fondness sweep over him.

"Well I guess, I won't disturb y-" Sara started but was immediately cut off by Shane

"I got flowers!" Shane said and then mentally face-palmed at his delivery

"Yes Shane" Sara said, "...you work here" she said in a confused tone

"No I meant-I have some right now" Shane said and then leaned down and brought out flowers which were neatly tied into a simple bouquet and put them on the counter, "They were just left from the day, you can have them....if you want that is"

Sara looked stunned, her face looked like all of the blood in her body rushed up to her cheeks. Shane thought he messed up so he was about to give some lame excuse but Sara beat him to it.

"Thank you...so much. I don't know what to say" Sara said while taking the flowers in her hands

"Yeah " Shane also found himself at a loss for words and started playing with the hem of his jacket. He picked these flowers out very carefully but he didn't think he would be able to give her these

"Shane?" Shane looked at the call of his name "What do these mean?"

"Huh?"

"These flowers, what do they symbolize?" Sara pressed

"Uhh....Friendship!" Shane said  
"Friendship?....Red rose means friendship?" Sara said while pointing at the rose from the bunch

"Yeah, in some cultures-" Shane almost lied but..there she was, right in front of Shane and his honesty gave in, "Yeah, um, okay" Shane looked at Sara who was clutching the bouquet in one hand and the single flower Shane gave in the morning in the other. She looked expectant and almost hopeful

"Okay so, this one is Amaryllis" Shane said while pointing at the flower, "It means creativity cause I think you are very talented. This one is Ranunculus, they mean charm and radiance because you are...that" Shane said while avoiding eye contact

"These are Purple roses" Shane continued "They mean love at first sight " Shane heard Sara take a sharp breath "And finally those are red roses"

Shane kept looking at everywhere except making eye contact. There was a dead silence where none of them said anything and Shane started thinking if he could go somewhere else and change his name and restart his life.

Finally Sara said, "Okay"

Shane looked up to ask what the hell did that mean when he felt a chaste press of lips on his cheek.  
Sara rocked back down from her tippy toes where she had to stand to reach Shane's height and looked at him expectantly

As realization dawned on Shane's face, he had a dopey grin on his face but then again she had it too.

"You know you could have just asked me out instead of avoiding any contact with me and then giving me flowers with hidden vague messages" Sara asked a few weeks later on Shane and her coffee date.

Shane gave her the sweetest kiss and held her chin with his hand saying "Where's the fun in that?"


End file.
